The eagles were found near the Golden City Church in Booneville in early December, according to a Game and Fish Commission news release. Necropsies revealed the cause of death to be poison.

“We’re not sure what type, but that’s what the necropsy revealed,” said Keith Stephens, assistant chief of communications with the Game and Fish. “It could’ve been something that was laid out inadvertently; we just don’t know at this point.”

Stephens said eagles don’t typically ingest poisonous material of their own volition.

The Logan County Sheriff’s Office is assisting in the investigation.

“If it was something that had been masked a little bit with some food or something like that, you know, that’s possible,” Stephens said. “We’d like to try to get some help from the public.”

Game and Fish is offering a $1,000 reward, while the Wildlife Service is offering a reward of as much as $2,500, for information leading to the conviction of the person or persons responsible for killing the eagles, the release states. The identity of anyone who provides the information will be kept confidential.

“We take it real serious,” Stephens said. “It’s a symbol of our country; it’s very near and dear to a lot of people in Arkansas. There’s not as many out there as we’d like, and anytime that there’s one, or two, like in this case, that are killed and that are protected, then we want to try to find out what happened.”

This month, an eagle was found shot and killed in Pike County. That death is still under investigation, according to the release.